Who: Xena & Gabrielle What: Gabrielle gets stabbed. When: Today. March 19. Where: A sidewalk. Rating/Warnings: Low. But Gabrielle does get stabbed, so fair warning for that. Status: Complete!
It had been a perfectly average Monday up to this point. First, she’d missed her alarm and was nearly late for work. Her students were restless. She’d forgotten to eat lunch. And now she was supposed to be meeting a friend for an early dinner to talk about her next book. That's what she was supposed to be doing.
Somehow everything had gone horribly wrong.
Gabrielle still wasn't sure how it had happened. She’d been distracted, but she hadn't noticed anything different. Not the man. Not the knife. She tried not to judge anyone by how they looked, and he'd seemed like any other face in the crowd. She'd even given him a polite smile as he was passing.
When he’d grabbed her, she'd been taken more by surprise than fear. Then she’d noticed the knife. It was over so quickly she didn't get much time to react.
She still hadn't quite processed it yet.
Something must have startled him because he’d let go of the knife before he'd pulled it out again. Strangely, that was all Gabrielle could seem to focus on, staring down at it with a mixture of surprise and fascination. She absently touched her fingers to the dark red stain spreading across her lower abdomen, seeming almost confused when they came away bloody. Then the spell was broken.
Sound rushed back in, much louder than it should have been, and along with it, pain. Gabrielle gasped, sinking to the ground in what felt like slow motion. She thought maybe she was crying, but she couldn't tell.
There were a hundred things that Xena regretted. A thousand. Not surprising Gabrielle after work today was one of them.
Being just a minute too late today leaped up to the forefront. As fast as Xena moved, as hard as she pushed herself, she still couldn't get there in time to catch the knife before Gabrielle was stabbed. Her voice felt raw and sore from Gabrielle's name.
She broke the man's nose, and if there hadn't been a crowd she'd have snapped his neck. Instead, she let him fall unconscious as she turned to Gabrielle, kneeling next to her. She looked at the wound, then at Gabrielle's face. "I'm going to numb the pain. I need you to breathe, and focus on the sound of my voice."
And then she hit the right pressure point to numb Gabrielle's body.
“Xena?” Was she real? Gabrielle wasn’t sure about that either. She reached out instinctively, but pulled her hand back when the stickiness reminded her it was still covered in blood. Under different circumstances, she might have apologized. But Xena felt real enough. “I don’t know what happened. I don't...”
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, full of pain and fear and confusion, and her attention wandered somewhere off to the side before she remembered she was meant to be focusing on Xena. She must have been real, otherwise that new lack of pain would be a very bad sign. It was a little easier to focus now. That didn’t make her any less afraid, but Xena’s presence was calming and at least she could think.
“It’ll be okay,” Xena assured her. “An ambulance is coming.”
The sight of that knife in her stomach was horrifying, but that was also a blessing. Her arrival had startled the attacker enough to leave it behind - which was good for Gabrielle. Less good for Xena’s peace of mind - flashbacks to too many times she’d watched over her. Too many times.
“It was probably just a random attack.”
Things like this did not happen to people like her. Actually, they did, frequently. But Gabrielle’s mind was still playing catchup. She remembered reading somewhere that it was better to leave whatever stabbed you where it was, but that didn’t mean the temptation pull it out wasn’t there.
“Xena, how bad is it?”
“Worse than it looks, not as bad as it could be,” she answered, truthfully. The knife was keeping the blood inside Gabrielle, mostly, and there was little else Xena could do besides keep her calm. “You’ll be fine once we get a medic here.”
That…was not as reassuring as she’d hoped. “Worse than it looks? Because it looks pretty bad.”
Gabrielle was trying to stay calm, really she was, and she wanted to believe she was doing quite well all things considered. But there was something needy in the way her hand inched toward Xena’s, some part of her desperately wanting that connection.
“There’s a chunk of metal in your stomach.” Xena smoothed back Gabrielle’s hair and cupped her face, looking at her with years of repressed emotion in her eyes. Right now, it was impossible to hide that Gabrielle meant the world to her, that there was this whole life they’d shared that weighed in Xena’s heart, had weighed because she’d born those memories alone.
“Exactly.” Looking at Xena was preferable to thinking too much about that though. The way she looked at her sometimes…
Gabrielle had only gotten glimpses of that emotion before now, like she had on the day they met. After she’d started dreaming, she’d thought that must be the reason. And maybe it was why Xena looked at her like she knew her, but it was so much more than that. There was so much love.
She wished she remembered, that she could return those feelings in equal measure. She wished she were able to enjoy it a little more instead of lying on a sidewalk bleeding.
“Xena, I’m glad you’re here.” She felt safe. And loved.
“Where’s the fucking ambulance.” Xena tore her gaze, away, looking around at the crowd. She thought she heard it in the distance. “What I wouldn’t give for ‘Dite right now.”
She’d almost be willing to take Ares’ help. Almost.
“They’ll be here.” Soon, she hoped. She felt much better when Xena was the calm one. Gabrielle’s eyes slid closed for just a moment, and she decided it was better if she kept talking.
She was usually better at staying positive, but as it turned out, having a stab wound she couldn’t even really feel (not that she was complaining) wasn’t great for positive thinking. Especially when her attention drifted to the knife any time she stopped staring at Xena. So instead, she tried to focus on anything other than her own fear. “You should call Lila. They’re only going to scare her.”
“Once you’re okay, I’ll call her, I promise.” Xena feared that eventually Gabrielle’s sister would get into trouble too. Something she’d have to keep an eye on.
It was hard enough to get out of the way of the paramedics, but surprisingly easy to talk them into letting her come along. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Gabrielle trusted she was in good hands, but she was still relieved once she knew Xena was coming with them. It was nice to have a familiar face.
The hospital was necessarily less accommodating, dismissing Xena soon after they’d arrived. No one was particularly forthcoming with information while she waited either, primarily offering mild assurances that Gabrielle was in the best possible hands. And it was a long wait.
But finally someone came looking for her, a doctor rather than a nurse, with dark hair and a British accent. “You must be Xena.”
“Yes, I am. How is she?” Xena was on her feet in an instant. That it was a doctor was alarming, but at least it wasn’t one that knew her. That had been a concern coming here, Xena had needed the emergency room on occasion.
Some patients made more of an impression than others, and Helen had a terrible habit of taking a personal interest. “We’ll want to keep an eye on her for a day or two, but she should be fine.” Her tone was warm and reassuring, practiced. “She’s resting now, but she did ask about you. I thought you might like to see her.”
“I would like that, thank you.” Xena smiled at her, visibly relaxing at the news. She had to remind herself that this Gabrielle wasn’t the one in her dreams; not yet. But she was still Gabrielle in all the ways that counted.
Xena just had to hide some of her affections.
“Of course. I don’t think the nurses will give you any trouble.” Not for a while at least, as long as she wasn’t in their way. And it was Helen's belief most patients benefited from having someone familiar nearby.
As promised, Gabrielle was sleeping, but she seemed peaceful. Maybe she sensed she was there though because it wasn’t long before her eyes opened. She remembered asking for her. Sort of remembered. Something about blue eyes and leather. She'd been worried they wouldn’t tell her anything.
It didn’t matter. What counted was that Xena was here now. “You stayed.”
“I’d never leave you willingly, Gabrielle.” Xena took a seat next to her, taking her hand and stroking it gently. Her tone was soft, sincere. She knew from what Gabrielle had told her about her dreams that they were already close to the point where that probably wasn’t super surprising.
Gabrielle had gotten into her heart fast. First as friends, but when Gabrielle had nearly died that first time, she’d started to realize that she’d meant more to her than she’d thought. That she loved her.
But in love with her? When Gabrielle had gotten married, probably. When Callisto had returned. The start of a lot of pain for the both of them.
She lifted Gabrielle’s hand to her lips.
This was still new, and sometimes Gabrielle still had her doubts; but when Xena said it, she knew she meant it. She didn’t know what Xena was to her, only that she was important. She was starting to trust that she was important to her too, but it wasn’t always easy. She’d really just met Xena. In this world and in the dreams. And their relationship was…different.
“I wish I remembered what you remember.”
“You will soon enough. And some of it you’ll wish you hadn’t.” Xena was truthful about that. And if Gabrielle asked her, she’d spill everything. Perdicus, Callisto, Hope and Eve. All of it.
“But Xena, what if I don’t?” She’d been having the dreams for a little while now. There had been especially a lot recently, but what if they stopped? Did that ever happen?
“They won’t stop. I can promise you that. Even if you want it to stop. Especially when you want it to stop.” She reached up, brushing at Gabrielle’s bangs.
That was both ominous and reassuring. She wanted to remember Xena. But she was also learning to trust her in these things. Sometimes she thought Xena might know her better than she knew herself. “And I’m going to want them to stop?”
“Sometimes, yes. Other times, no.” Xena cupped Gabrielle’s cheek so she could lock eyes with her. “As far as I’m concerned, all the times I wanted them to stop were worth it in the end.”
Between Xena’s hand on her cheek and those blue, blue eyes, Gabrielle found herself at a little bit of a loss.
She was still staring into her eyes. She couldn’t help it. “Xena, when I want them to stop, promise me you’ll be there.” The next was said more quietly, with a soft smile, “You know, I don’t have that many friends either.”
Xena was more than a friend. She already felt that, and it only had a little to do with the dreams. But it didn’t change the sentiment.
“I’ll be there.” She squeezed Gabrielle’s hand again. “And you’ll make friends. You were always better at that than I was, or am. You’ve got the most charming personality, and you have this way of wrapping everyone around your finger.”
Gabrielle’s eyes sparkled with a hint of amusement. “You think I’m charming?”
“Yes. You’re charming. And pleasant to listen to. You really know how to sell a story too. Many nights under the stars listening to you talk.”
Her voice took on a faraway quality. “I love telling stories.”
She might have started telling one now, if she’d had the energy and movement didn’t seem like such a bad idea at the moment.
“We could do that here sometime, somewhere we can actually see the stars.” It was a quiet suggestion, and Gabrielle tried to pay close attention to Xena’s reaction.
Xena’s voice caught in her through, so she could only nod as she tried to compose herself. She hated seeing Gabrielle like this. “We can find a place. Maybe along the ocean.”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
Sometimes Xena wasn’t as hard to read as she thought, or maybe it was just that Gabrielle paid more attention. But it wasn’t going to be like this forever. Things would go back to being normal. Almost normal.
Gabrielle decided maybe it was time she tried to lighten the conversation. That, at least, was something she could do. “You know, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for our second date.”
“I’m not exactly wearing that dress I promised.” Xena looked down at herself. “It was a nice dress, I’m sure it would have knocked your socks off.”
Gabrielle wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or if she wanted to kiss her. Probably a little of both. Getting stabbed was proving very inconvenient.
“Oh, you’re still going to wear the dress.” Even if they never got their quiet dinner and it was solely for her benefit, Gabrielle had decided. “You’re beautiful anyway.”
“Of course I’m still going to wear the dress. I promised, didn’t I?” Xena laughed softly. “I always try to keep my promises.”
She didn’t always succeed, but at least she tried. That had to count for something.
It counted for everything, as far as Gabrielle was concerned. “I guess that means we’re going to need a third date.”
Not that she’d ever had any doubts they would. But she was starting to get tired again, and her fingers tightened briefly around Xena’s hand. It wasn’t so much a request as a plea, “Be here when I wake up?”
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Xena promised. Except maybe to get something to eat, but she’d make sure to be there when Gabrielle needed her. How could she do anything else?
Gabrielle nodded, visibly relieved. She didn’t think she was ready to be alone again yet. Her grip relaxed, but she didn’t let go of Xena’s hand. Maybe she’d rest now, just for a little while.
Xena wasn’t sure how long she sat there. The light outside grew dimmer through the blinds and shadows chased each other across the floor and bedsheets. Unable to help herself, she leaned forward, brushing her lips lightly against Gabrielle’s. “There are gonna be times you’ll hate me. Times we argued in our dreams, even fought. But we always, always make up, and I’ll always, always love you.”